Tips for Cybersecurity Incident Response Planning

Every organization requires an effective cybersecurity incident response plan that can be implemented swiftly whenever it experiences a cyberattack so as to limit the damages. No organization or business, regardless of size or operations, is exempt from cyber threats, hence having an effective incident response plan is very vital. There are quite a number of considerations and tools that have to fit together to work flawlessly in executing an incident response process.

Unfortunately, most organizations that have never experienced a cyberattack in the past don’t have incident response plans or don’t even know what to prioritize when designing the plan. An effective plan is supposed to guide the incident response team in managing a potential cyber threat in such a manner that will support rapid response activities. Companies with exposure to data liability should come up with effective incident response plan.Build an internal incident response team

Organizations that have significantly protected their information should go beyond depending on a WISP responsible manager for protecting sensitive data and instead assemble an internal incident response team that is responsible for evaluating potential breaches and taking necessary action. The size of the incident response team will depend on the geographical reach, type of data protected, and degree of data loss exposure. The team should include the WISP responsible manager, technology manager, legal counsel, operations manager, and human resource manager. Some of its duties include but not limited to advising the management of any potential key breach and response developments. They should also inform employees about the breach and measures to take in order to limit the cyberattack from escalating.

Identify outside data security resources

A cyberattack can quickly escalate and become disastrous before the organization interviews and hires the right experts to combat the attack and limit liability. The incident response team has a role of identifying an external resource and having full contact information for quick response processes to be initiated. Try these websites for more information about assembling external data security resources and having a backup plan in case of unavailability. The external data security team should include computer forensics experts, public relations professionals, insurance brokers, and operations personnel.

Differentiate breaches
The incident response plans should have some level of flexibility that enables them to differentiate types of breaches and design processes for tackling each of them differently. While some breaches can be handled by the WISP responsible manager, others will require the attention of all team members and even across all departments. Consultations have to be done quickly and effectively in order to handle the problem before it becomes an outage.
Regardless of the size of the organization, some types of breaches will require different personnel to be on a team tackling the attack. Well-designed response plans for major organizations have a checklist of prioritized action items that need to be executed by the incident response teams. Managers of the teams should avoid making public statements until computer forensics confirm that unauthorized incursion occurred.